No “sex neutral”, decided the Court of Appeal of Orleans – The Obs

Orleans (AFP) – The Court of Appeal of Orleans refused to recognize a sexagenarian the possibility of including the words “gender neutral” on civil status, contrary to what was decided, for the first once in France, the Tours tribunal on 20 August.

in a Monday judgment and which AFP has learned Tuesday, the judges of the court of appeal felt “admit the request of Mr. X would recognize under the guise of a simple rectification of civil status, the existence of another sexual category. “

the case of the first French person to have obtained the mention “gender neutral” on civil status will probably be brought before the Court of Cassation, and eventually to the European Court of Human rights in Strasbourg.

me Mila Petkova, lawyer sexagenarian, s’ declared Tuesday “very disappointed” by the decision of the appeal court. “This is one more violence inflicted on my client,” did she indignantly.

His client “will go to the end, because it is his private life,” explained Mr. Petkova at the hearing before the court of appeal on February 5. Counsel relied in particular Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which enshrines the “right to private and family life”.

The public prosecutor, who had appealed Tours of the decision of court, acknowledged that the European Court of Human rights recognizes “a right to sexual identity, right related to personal development, which is a fundamental aspect of the right to respect for private life “. However, for the Crown, “the French law, in any way the possibility of marked + neutral sex + on an act of civil status”.

Declared male at birth, applicant bears a human name. However, he, according to his doctor, “a rudimentary vagina and micropenis, but no testicles”.

Aged 64, married, the applicant adopted a child. He lives in the East of France, but his application was filed in Tours, because it is his hometown. He claims to have realized at age 12 that he was intersex.

Until the age of 35 he had an androgynous appearance, rather feminine, until follow hormone therapy in testosterone-based notably to prevent osteoporosis. At the hearing on 5 February, the complainant explained that he never wanted this masculine appearance, he described as “purely artificial”.

To the judges of the Court of Appeal , look for “a fair balance between the protection of the status of persons, which is of public order and respect for the privacy of individuals with a variation in sexual development.”

” this balance leads to allow (these persons) to obtain either that Vital does not mention any sexual category, that is modified sex assigned to them, since it is not matched their physical appearance and social behavior. “

in this case, the judges note that” Mr. X presents a masculine appearance, he is married in 1993 and that his wife and him adopted a child. ” They conclude that his marital status change request would be “inconsistent with his physical appearance and social behavior.”